There's still a couple of weeks left in the holiday season and I'm going to milk everything out of it that I can.
I wish it were Christmas every month. There's no shortage of post ideas, that's for sure. You know those stores where it's Christmas all year round? They're usually ingeniously named "The Christmas Store"? I should become The Christmas Blog. All Christmas, all the time.
Of course if that were the case, you'd never learn things like how to toilet train your cat or how to help heal a gaping hole in the side of a goldfish. And that's the sort of information everyone needs access to. And by everyone, I mean 3, maybe 4 people tops.
I'll have to give it some thought.
In the meantime, let's continue on with today's post. My sister had a party last weekend and everyone had to bring a "Gimme Gift". It's so you can take part in a Christmas party game where every guest puts a $10 present under the tree. Then everyone picks a gift. Then for some reason, everyone is allowed to run screaming across the room to tackle another party goer for whatever gift is in their hands. This goes on until someone sustains a brain injury.
I hate the Gimme Gift Game. Nonetheless, not wanting to be a spoil sport, I bought my $10 gimme gift. Once I had made it, it occurred to me that what I'd really made was a nice little hostess gift for $10. I'm proud to say it created quite a lot of mayhem during the Gimme gift exchange, and more than a few injuries.
Of course, it all began at the Dollar Store. (when giving ANYTHING from the Dollar Store remove every possible thing that identifies it as being from the Dollar Store ... tags, stickers, smell of urine)
In this little gift basket are 3 wooden spoons (3 for $1.25), a bowl ($1.25), 2 mason jars, one filled with salt, the other pepper ($1 each, plus cost of salt and pepper), 2 small spoons ($1 each), 2 teatowels plus a dishcloth ($2 for all), some chocolates and a few of my farm fresh eggs. You'll probably have to forego the eggs unless you happen to have chickens. I can put the eggs in there, because I haven't washed my eggs of their outer membrane so they're fine out of the fridge for hours on end. Total cost? $10 once you factor in the cost of the salt and pepper.
Looking at it now of course, there are a ton of things I would have improved. I would have filled the bowl with bits of straw, I would have tied twine around the mason jars and I probably wouldn't have included the eggs in the gift basket, which don't take kindly to being thrown across the room by an elderly Portugese woman in the hopes of not being tackled for her present.
I just tied the entire thing up with the dishtowels and secured it with some twine and added a couple of pine cones because I happen to be abnormally obsessed with pine cones these past few years.
And there you have it. The $10 hostess gift post. It won't save a fish but it might cause a riot.
You are a pistol! Love your website...can't wait to ask you a question :o)
Thanks Lisa. Glad you found my site! ~ karen
I pinned this on Pinterest and it got a ton of pins. Just FYI. You made me very popular :)
I recreated this from our Dollar Tree in Prescott, AZ, and it turned out sort of OK, but your dishtowel zhushing looks SO much better than mine. I need a tutorial in artful dishtowel wrapping.
I checked out 5Below tonight. Everything $5 or less.
$1 must be worth a LOT more in Canada. There was nothing but gear made of plastic or synthetic. I walked the entire store in hopes of finding anything great like you did. Not. One Thing.
and the smell in there made my eyes burn..are our countries that different?!
Very cute Karen. I actually did a similar post on my blog using our farm fresh eggs too and created a free little printable tag to go with it. I called it "Breakfast for the Morning After" because we were going to a sangria and tapas party and I figured the hostess might need some good breakfast after a night with sangria and just appetizers;)
I suggest, for those without chickens, to visit your local farmer's market where they often sell farm fresh eggs;)
I'm not the only one giving eggs away for Christmas! I knew I wasn't crazy! Or maybe I am... considering... I'm putting mine in a Pancake Breakfast Gift Basket. Something about stirring devices and eggs screams 'great present' to me I guess:
http://chickenscratchny.blogspot.com/2011/12/pancake-breakfast-gift-basket.html
I'm curious, did any of the eggs really break during the gift exhange / riot? LOL
those towels are fantastic, and so simple, you always surprise (and amuse) me.
Actually, someone had the idea of writing a Christmas blog:
http://keepingthechristmasspiritalive365.blogspot.com/2011/12/12-days-of-christmas_12.html
Enjoy!
If you put that same stuff in a box, no one would fight for it. It's all in the presentation. You get the GOLD star for this one. The wooden spoons are great but be careful of other cooking utensils @ the dollar store. I stuck a "rubber" spatula into a pan of boiling hot fudge to give it a stir and pour it into the pan. Suddenly I was stirring with a handle. I thought that the rubber part fell off. Noooo, it melted right into the fudge. I kept poking around to find the piece and poked and poked and it was gone. Yes, I threw it away but I must admit that I thought through everyone I knew to think if there was someone I should take a pan of fudge to. Then sanity returned and I threw it away. Hahahaha!